Hagan and Lupton accepted their awards at a gala on Thursday, October 18, 2012 at the College.

The event, attended by more than 250 guests, raised $286,000, with proceeds going to support the Visionary Woman Scholarships.

The Award began in 2003 and has become a signature event at Moore each fall. Since 2005, the College has designated proceeds from the Visionary Woman Awards to benefit four-year merit-based Visionary Woman Scholarships.

Interior designer and entrepreneur Victoria Hagan is known for integrating architecture and interior design. Since founding her firm over 20 years ago, Hagan has designed private residences, residential developments and corporate interiors. She is continually featured in publications such as Architectural Digest, Elle Décor and Town & Country, among others. Ellen Lupton is the director of the Center for Design Thinking and the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art. She also serves as a curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

The 2012 Visionary Woman Awards gala was held at Moore College of Art & Design, located at 20th Street and The Parkway. The Elizabeth Greenfield Zeidman Lecture featuring the three honorees was held earlier that day in Stewart Auditorium.

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Moore College of Art & Design educates students for inspiring careers in art and design. Founded in 1848, Moore is the nation's first and only women's art college. Moore's career-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees for women. A coeducational Graduate Studies program was launched in summer, 2009. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries at Moore, a Continuing Education Certificate program for adults, the 91-year-old acclaimed Youth Art Program for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more information about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.

(Philadelphia, PA) This fall, The Galleries at Moore are pleased to launch an exciting new outreach initiative, Literacy Through Photography, in collaboration with photographer and educator Wendy Ewald, Moore and the Art Education programs at the College.

Literacy Through Photography, a nationally-recognized arts curriculum inspired by Ewald, encourages children to explore their world as they photograph scenes from their own lives, and then to use their images as catalysts for verbal and written expression.

In the early 1970s, Wendy Ewald, a MacArthur “genius” award-winning artist and educator, was one of the early pioneers in investigating collaboration as part of her artistic practice. In handing the camera over to her subjects in what started as a documentary investigation of places and communities connected to teaching, she opened the world of photography to an unexpected group of children from developing nations and disadvantaged communities.

With significant grants from The William Penn Foundation and the Institute of Museums and Library Services Museums for America, the LTP project consists of multiple components. Starting first as a collaboration with ArtsRising schools, Literacy Through Photography kicks off this fall with workshops and teacher training at Moore led by Ewald and staff from Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies where LTP is officially administered.

Moore’s art education faculty and staff will also receive training as the basis of building Literacy Through Photography into Moore’s art education curriculum. Teachers from three ArtsRising middle schools will incorporate LTP in the second half of the school year starting in January 2011, supported in their classrooms by student teachers in Moore’s art education program.

A teacher and student Blog will provide interaction between teachers at the schools and document the process. At the end of the school year, a catalogue documenting student writing and photography created through LTP in schools will be produced in conjunction with an exhibition of student work held at Moore from May to July, 2011.

“My Philadelphia: People, Places and Things” will be a special interactive website inspired by Literacy Through Photography that invites broader community participation in creating personalized portraits of the city by sharing photographs and stories related to themes of neighborhood, community and family.

In the fall of 2011, working with existing community-based organizations in the communities around the ArtsRising schools and Philadelphia-based teaching artists, Moore will expand its current after-school and community programs using Literacy Through Photography as inspiration. Ewald will create a special project of collaboratively made images that respond to the diverse issues and concerns that exist neighborhood to neighborhood. This project will feature an “insertion” of photos and texts into public spaces as a way of creating a dialogue of significance to that community.

Each component of the project will be documented to create additional resources for arts educators to introduce the curriculum into their teaching practice.

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Moore College of Art & Design educates students for inspiring careers in art and design. Founded in 1848, Moore is the nation's first and only women's art college. Moore's career-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees for women. A coeducational Graduate Studies program was launched in summer, 2009. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries at Moore, a Continuing Education Certificate program for adults, the 91-year-old acclaimed Youth Art Program for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more information about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.

September 8, 2010
This fall, The Galleries at Moore are pleased to launch an exciting new outreach initiative, Literacy Through Photography, in collaboration with photographer and educator Wendy Ewald, Moore and the Art Education programs at the College.

(Philadelphia, PA) U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) announced today that Moore has been awarded a matching competitive federal grant under the Museums for America program. The grant will help the Galleries at Moore introduce photographer Wendy Ewald's nationally acclaimed "Literacy Through Photography" work to Philadelphia.

Moore will receive a $79,138 grant – and provide a match of $81,474 – to showcase Ewald’s work through exhibitions and public programs. For more than 30 years, photographer and educator Ewald has worked with children around the world, using photography and writing activities to help them express what they think and feel about themselves, their families and communities.

The grant also will support Moore’s partnership with the School District of Philadelphia in 2010-11 for the “Arts Rising” program to improve literacy and arts access for school-age children.

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Moore's neighbor on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, received a grant to create a digital index for its world-reknowned collection of insect specimens.

“The Parkway is our gateway to culture, learning and enrichment for Philadelphians and visitors, and supporting these two fine institutions is an excellent use of our nation’s cultural resources,” said Congressman Fattah, whose congressional district includes Moore. “I extend congratulations to the Academy of Natural Sciences and Moore College for these innovative proposals that have risen to the top in national competition. These will be dollars well spent.”

The competitive grants are provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through its Museums for America program. The Institute has selected for funding about one-third of the 510 applications it received nationwide.

Ewald will receive Moore's Visionary Woman Award on September 30, 2010, along with couture handbag designer Judith Leiber and museum curator Ann Temkin. In 2005, the College decided to have proceeds from the Visionary Woman Awards directed to create Visionary Woman Scholarships. Since then, 24 four-year scholarships have been awarded.

Wendy Ewald - Secret Games: Collaborative Works with Children 1969 - 1999 is currently on view in The Galleries through October 16. In an exhibition spread across three galleries over five months, Secret Games showcases the scope of Ewald’s work and the powerful results of her collaborations with children. The exhibition features approximately 200 photographs along with video installation, a reading room and project documentation.

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Moore College of Art & Design educates students for inspiring careers in art and design. Founded in 1848, Moore is the nation's first and only women's art college. Moore's career-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees for women. A coeducational Graduate Studies program was launched in summer, 2009. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries at Moore, a Continuing Education Certificate program for adults, the 91-year-old acclaimed Youth Art Program for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more information about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.

July 12, 2010
U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) announced today that Moore has been awarded a matching competitive federal grant under the Museums for America program. The grant will help the galleries introduce photographer Wendy Ewald's "Literacy Through Photography" work to Philadelphia through exhibitions and public programs.

Ewald, Leiber and Temkin accepted the Visionary Woman Award at a gala on Thursday, September 30 at the College.

The gala, attended by 280 guests raised $313,000, with proceeds going to support the Visionary Woman Scholarships.

Since 2003, the Award has become a signature event at Moore each fall. In 2005, the College designated proceeds from the Visionary Woman Awards benefit Visionary Woman Scholarships. Since then, 24 four-year scholarships have been awarded.

Ewald's Literacy Through Photography program engages students, artists and teachers throughout the world. Leiber is a renowned couture handbag designer. Curator Temkin is the first woman to hold the Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“We are delighted to honor three exceptional women with the 2010 Visionary Woman Award,” said Moore President Dr. Happy Craven Fernandez. “Each has made invaluable contributions to her respective field. Their leadership provides inspiration to Moore’s emerging artists and all women artists and designers.”

The 2010 Visionary Woman Award gala will be held at Moore College of Art & Design, located at 20th Street and The Parkway. Proceeds from the gala support Visionary Woman Award Scholarships. The Elizabeth Greenfield Zeidman Lecture featuring the three honorees will be held earlier that day at 2 pm in the Stewart Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

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Moore College of Art & Design educates students for inspiring careers in art and design. Founded in 1848, Moore is the nation's first and only women's art college. Moore's career-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees for women. A coeducational Graduate Studies program was launched in summer, 2009. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries at Moore, a Continuing Education Certificate program for adults, the 91-year-old acclaimed Youth Art Program for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more information about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.

Brief Bios of Awardees

WENDY EWALD
Wendy Ewald has for 38 years collaborated in projects with children, families, artists and teachers throughout the United States and the world. Ewald’s Literacy Through Photography program has become an international model for engaging students through photography to explore identity and cultural diversity and improve literacy.

Ewald’s many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fulbright Commission, and solo exhibitions at the International Center of Photography in New York, the George Eastman House, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Nederlands Foto Institute in Rotterdam, and the Fotomuseum in Switzerland.

Ewald has published ten books. She currently teaches at Amherst College and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

JUDITH LEIBER
Renowned as the world’s foremost designer of couture handbags, Judith Leiber’s creations bridge the worlds of fine art and fashion. Leiber was born and raised in Budapest. With the outbreak of World War II, she entered the Hungarian handbag guild – the first woman to enter and to achieve Master status.

After moving to the United States, Leiber worked as a pattern maker and foreman for several handbag companies until she formed her own company in 1963. Initially, she and her husband, Gerson, were the sole employees, with Leiber designing and producing while her husband made deliveries to major department stores.

Today, Leiber’s handbags are in the collections of major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

ANN TEMKIN
Ann Temkin is the first woman to hold the position of Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. At MoMA, she has curated celebrated exhibitions, including Gabriel Orozco, Monet’s Water Lilies, and Color Chart: Reinventing Color.

From 1990 through 2003, Temkin was the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, curating major exhibitions and catalogues including Barnett Newman, Alice Neel, Raymond Pettibon, Joseph Cornell/ Marcel Duchamp, and Constantin Brancusi. She has written for periodicals including Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, and Grand Street. She is a founding trustee of the Association of Art Museum Curators.

Temkin received her BA from Harvard University and her PhD from Yale University.

(Philadelphia, PA) Moore College of Art & Design presented its 2009 Visionary Woman Awards to museum administrator Nancy Kolb, president and CEO of the Please Touch Museum and architect and designer Billie Tsien, a partner in the firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, architects of the new Barnes Foundation on The Ben Franklin Parkway. Kolb and Tsien accepted the Visionary Woman Award at a gala at the College on October 7, 2009. The gala, attended by 275 guests, raised $270,000, with proceeds going to support the Visionary Woman Scholarships.

“This year we were delighted to be able to honor two exceptional women each of whom, in their own way, will leave an enduring mark on Philadelphia,” said Moore President Dr. Happy Craven Fernandez. “Each has made invaluable contributions to the design and transformation of museum spaces that captivate the public eye and invite museum goers to take a step beyond the typical museum experience.”

Since 2003, the Visionary Woman Awards has become a widely recognized event that honors women whose work and leadership have had a powerful influence on the visual arts. Both of this year’s honorees have played a significant role in working with cultural institutions in transition and envisioning the transformation of space for major museums.

The Visionary Woman Award gala celebration honoring Tsien and Kolb took place October 7 at the College, located at 20th Street and The Parkway. Proceeds from the gala go to support the Visionary Woman Scholarship Fund. The Elizabeth Greenfield Zeidman Lecture featuring Kolb and Tsien was held earlier that day in the Stewart Auditorium. The lecture was free and open to the public.

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Moore College of Art & Design educates students for inspiring careers in art and design. Founded in 1848, Moore is the nation's first and only women's art college. Moore's career-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees for women. A coeducational Graduate Studies program was launched in summer, 2009. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries at Moore, a Continuing Education Certificate program for adults, the 91-year-old acclaimed Youth Art Program for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more information about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.

Associated Event:Inside the Architect’s Studio: The Process of Making Museums, an exhibition honoring the work of the honorees, will be on view in The Galleries at Moore October 7 to December 9, 2009. The Galleries at Moore are free and open to the public.

Brief Bios of Awardees

Nancy Kolb brought new life and energy to a section of Fairmount Park through a multi-year endeavor to restore historic Memorial Hall into the new Please Touch Museum, which opened in 2008 and is the only children’s museum in the region. Since the move, the new Please Touch Museum has almost tripled the number of visitors.

Kolb worked closely with the architectural firm of Kise, Straw & Kolodner, who developed the plans for the restoration and new construction at Memorial Hall, one of America's first examples of Beaux-Arts architecture originally built for the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Over the last two decades, she has worked tirelessly to expand the scope and mission of the Museum, inspiring support from across the community to literally and figuratively put the institution “on the map.”

Before joining the Please Touch Museum, Kolb served as assistant executive director for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and on the board of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. She received her undergraduate degree in history and biology from Bucknell University and is a graduate of the Getty Museum Management Institute.

Billie Tsien, an internationally recognized architect with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, is poised to create a transformative milestone in the cultural life of Philadelphia since her firm was selected to design the new building for the Barnes Foundation. The art education center will house the Barnes Foundation's preeminent collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early modern paintings.

Previous museum projects by the firm include The American Folk Art Museum in New York City, the first new museum to be built in New York in more than thirty years. In 2002 the museum received the Arup World Architecture award for Best Building in the World. Other museum projects by Tsien include two major additions to the Phoenix Art Museum and the Mattin Arts Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Locally, Tsien’s firm designed Skirkanich Hall, a new bioengineering building at the University of Pennsylvania that was hailed by local architecture critic Inga Saffron as “Philadelphia’s best building in years.” The President of UPenn dubbed it “The Miracle on 33rd Street.” While most of the buildings on Penn’s campus are steel construction with red-brick cladding, Skirkanich is a concrete building with a shingled glass and aluminum curtain wall, zinc panels and glazed green brick.

Tsien and Williams have designed major projects that have won National AIA Honor Awards, including the natatorium at the Cranbrook School and the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA. Their design for the American Folk Art Museum received the Arup World Architecture award for Best Building in the World in 2002. Tsien received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Yale in 1971 and her Master in Architecture from UCLA in 1977. She has taught at Parsons School of Design, Yale University, Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Pennsylvania. She shares with Tod Williams the Louis I. Kahn Chair at Yale.

October 19, 2009
Moore College of Art & Design presented its 2009 Visionary Woman Awards to museum administrator Nancy Kolb, president and CEO of the Please Touch Museum and architect and designer Billie Tsien, a partner in the firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, architects of the new Barnes Foundation on The Ben Franklin Parkway. Kolb and Tsien accepted the Visionary Woman Award at a gala at the College on October 7, 2009.

(Philadelphia, PA) The 2009 Visionary Woman Awards will honor two exceptional women who will leave an enduring mark on Philadelphia: Nancy Kolb and Billie Tsien.

The awards will be held on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Moore College of Art & Design.

Since 2003, the Visionary Woman Awards has become a widely recognized event that honors women whose work and leadership have had a powerful influence on the visual arts.

As president and CEO of the Please Touch Museum, Nancy Kolb has brought new life and energy to a section of Fairmount Park by restoring historic Memorial Hall. As one of the architects of the new Barnes on the Parkway, Billie Tsien will create a transformative milestone in the cultural life of the Philadelphia.

NANCY KOLB
President, Please Touch Museum
Nancy Kolb is president and CEO of the Please Touch Museum, the only children’s museum in the region. She recently directed the museum’s relocation and significant expansion into Memorial Hall. Kolb inspired support from all over the community to renovate and restore Memorial Hall, one of the first Beaux Arts style buildings in the United States and the largest remaining building from the US Centennial of 1876.

Kolb previously served as assistant executive director for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and on the board of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. She received her undergraduate degree in history and biology from Bucknell University and is a graduate of the Getty Museum Management Institute.

BILLIE TSIEN
Architect
Billie Tsien is an internationally recognized architect whose firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects has been selected to design the new building for the Barnes on The Parkway. Tsien’s firm is known for award-winning work that bridges art and architecture.

Tsien and Williams have designed major projects that have won National AIA Honor Awards, including the natatorium at the Cranbrook School and the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA. Their design for the American Folk Art Museum received the Arup World Architecture award for Best Building in the World in 2002. Tsien received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Yale in 1971 and her Master in Architecture from UCLA in 1977. She has taught at Parsons, Yale, Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of
Pennsylvania. She shares with Tod Williams the Louis I. Kahn Chair at Yale.

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Moore College of Art & Design educates students for inspiring careers in art and design. Founded in 1848, Moore is the nation's first and only women's art college. Moore's career-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees for women. A coeducational Graduate Studies program was launching in summer, 2009. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries at Moore, a Continuing Education Certificate program for adults, the acclaimed Youth Art Program for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more information about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.

April 21, 2009
The 2009 Visionary Woman Awards will honor two exceptional women who will leave an enduring mark on Philadelphia: Nancy Kolb and Billie Tsien.
Since 2003, the Visionary Woman Awards has become a widely recognized event that honors women whose work and leadership have had a powerful influence on the visual arts.

McFadden was honored September 24, 2008 as part of Moore’s 160th Anniversary Year

(Philadelphia) – Moore College of Art & Design was pleased to present world-renowned fashion designer Mary McFadden with their annual Visionary Woman Award for 2008. As Moore celebrates its 160th anniversary during the 2008-2009 academic year, McFadden will also be on campus several times throughout the year, to install an exhibition showcasing her designs and personal textile collection, as a guest lecturer and as a judge in Moore’s 2009 Spring Fashion Show.

Mary McFadden is known for her exquisite personal style and unique creative design talent, which she brought to life most notably through women’s fashion, but also through textile design, jewelry and costume crafting and interior styling. Influenced by her global travel, McFadden is considered a “design archeologist.” Her signature look was admired and adopted by women such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

At this milestone in its 160-year history, Moore selected McFadden to receive its 2008 Visionary Woman Award, which honors outstanding women leaders who have had a powerful impact on the worlds of art and design. The award reflects Moore’s history as the first and only women’s visual arts college and its mission to educate students for careers in the visual arts. The event benefited Moore’s Visionary Woman Scholarship Fund. McFadden is the thirteenth Visionary Woman honoree.

“We are honored to have Mary McFadden – a true creative icon – as an integral part of our 160th anniversary celebration,” says Moore President Dr. Happy Craven Fernandez. “She embodies the possibilities of what a talented, determined and confident woman can achieve in the world of art and design.”

McFadden accepted the Visionary Woman Award at a gala at the college on September 24, 2008. Goddesses, an exhibition of her own work in The Galleries at Moore, is on view from August 28 through December 6, 2008. As part of Moore’s yearlong 160th Anniversary celebration, which includes special exhibitions, films, publications and events, McFadden will also present two free public lectures: the Zeidman Lecture on September 24, and Goddesses, Symbols and Ancient Textiles on November 18, 2008. She will return to Philadelphia on May 16, 2009, when she will be a guest judge at Moore’s Spring Fashion Show.

Moore College of Art & Design educates students for inspiring careers in art and design. Founded in 1848, Moore is the nation's first and only women's art college. Moore's career-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees for women. A coeducational Graduate Studies program launching in summer, 2009. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries at Moore, a Continuing Education Certificate program for adults, the acclaimed Youth Art Program for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more information about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.

Sep 24, 2008
Moore College of Art & Design presented world-renowned fashion designer Mary McFadden with its 2008 Visionary Woman Award at a ceremony on September 24, 2008. The award ceremony coincided with an exhibition showcasing McFadden's designs and personal textile collection. Mary McFadden: Goddesses, on view August 28 through December 6, 2008 in The Galleries at Moore will travel to the National Museum for Women in the Arts in the spring of 2009. As part of the ongoing festivities planned for the College's 160th Anniversary, McFadden will return as a guest critic for the 2009 Spring Fashion Show.